Chimera Beast takes place on a planet which is described as distant and Earth-like. The planet is overrun by evil creatures known as Eaters, capable of eating other creatures and acquiring their abilities or characteristics. The player controls one of these Eaters and progresses through the game by means of evolution, consuming microscopic organisms in the first stage, fish in the second, and so on. When the player's creature gets big enough to take on humanity, the goal of the game is revealed. The planet's humans have developed space travel, which the player must thwart, so as not to give the Eaters a means of escaping the planet. There are two possible endings: one in which the player is able to stop the Eaters from escaping the planet, and one in which the Eaters do escape and, we are told, will eventually make their way to Earth.

The chief innovation of Chimera Beast is its power-up system. Instead of collecting gun upgrades as in most games of this genre, the player's Eater enhances itself by eating other creatures and assuming their abilities and defenses. Instead of simply having various types of projectile weaponry, the game attempts to make these new abilities as varied as possible. Consuming a crustacean might give the player's Eater a hard protective shell, for example, while an insectoid creature might offer a poisonous tail instead. The game even includes the ability to use cancer as a weapon.

Another difference from typical shooter mechanics is that the player's Eater does not die after being hit. It has a life bar, which can be charged by consuming enemies. It is even possible to eat enough to charge the life bar past its starting position, creating a larger Eater which is not only more powerful but can take more damage as well.

This video-game provides examples of:

All Your Powers Combined: The Final Boss is a bigger, meaner, spikier version of your character. It has many of the abilities you could obtain (namely your regular shot, laser, homing eyes, cancer bombs, and homing bug missile), except stronger.

The first boss, two lampreys, could only be damaged when its head was open.

The second boss, a squid with an elastic head, was vulnerable in the eye.

The third boss, a giant killer bird, was exposed to damage when it opened its mouth to fire out rings.

The fourth boss, a crocodile-like reptile, was weak in its open mouth... when it surfaced to attack.

The sixth boss, a nuclear reactor, was weak in the "nucleus" spot.

The final boss was weak in all of its red "eyespots"; killing all of them would defeat it.

The Bad Guy Wins: Technically, both ways. The "Bad Ending" has the Villain Protagonist kill off the solar system. The "Good Ending" has you killed by the Final Boss, and this leads to a win for the ecosystem you were trying to destroy.

Battleship Raid: The Final Boss is a mini version of sorts. It has multiple targetable parts, five "eyes", and two horns. In order to defeat it, you had to destroy all its eyes. Destroying the horns would prevent it from using its lightning attack.

Beware My Stinger Tail: One of the things your Eater could obtain was a stinger tail with dual spikes. Charging up your attack when you had a "poison tail" would act as a smart bomb.

Boss Arena Urgency: During the fifth boss fight, the lava in the room will rise, making it harder to avoid the boss' attacks.

Boss Vulnerability: The lion-boar hybrid is Always Vulnerable, the two lampreys, giant bird, and alien crocodile are Wait Them Out + Attack Its Weak Point, and the rest are standard attack the weak point.

Breath Weapon: Your Eater's regular attack. Better to eat the opponent, though, as it did more damage and could replenish your health.

Charged Attack: Your regular attack could be charged by holding down the button. Depending on the tail you have, the shot would be different. If your Eater evolved to get the "eyes" ability, you would also fire a circle of them out as Homing Projectiles.

Food Chain of Evil: Within the Eaters, no less. In the final stage, the regular Mooks are smaller Eaters of different varieties which you can eat, and the Final Boss is a King Mook Eater that's higher up on the food chain than you.

Mind Screw: The "good ending", where you beat the final boss, is actually the Bad Ending. The real good ending occurs when you lose against the final boss and choose not to continue or run out of time against it.

One-Hit-Point Wonder: Averted. Your Eater can have up to a maximum of 9 hit points, which can be replenished via eating enemies.

One-Track-Minded Hunger: The Eaters. Their name pretty much says it all- they opening scroll mentions that they are amoral, greedy, and without conscience.

Opening Scroll: "Far away on a planet similar to Earth, a new life form emerges..."

Power Copying: Your Eater gains the characteristics of the enemies it eats. For example, eating a clam enemy will give your Eater a hard shell, eating an energy-shooting enemy will give you lasers, etc.

Secondary Fire: Your Eater's secondary attack was to launch its jaws out, eating weaker enemies and heavily damaging stronger ones. It's the only way to evolve new abilities as well as restore your health, by the way.

Villain Protagonist: You play as a diabolical, amoral Eater. The "good" ending that you get when beating the final boss actually says "BAD ENDING", meaning a bad end for humanity.

Wake-Up Call Boss: The second boss, a Giant Squid. The first boss can be easily beaten by spamming your "eat" move on their head, which neutralizes their shots and kills them quickly. The second boss has much more hit points and sprays exploding shots, as well as extending its head to deal Collision Damage and fire huge spreads of shots from its neck which are hard to avoid.

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy